By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
After winning in Portugal, Darussafaka closed the Play-Ins best-of-three series at home, beating SL Benfica 83-72 in overtime.
Five players scored in double digits for Selçuk Ernak’s team. Markel Starks fired up for 20 points and 6 assists. Ercan Osmani, despite recording 6 turnovers, had a double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds.
After making a double-double in each of his previous two BCL games, Dogus Özdemiroglu struggled shooting (3/13 FG) but had 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. Gabriel Olaseni added 15 points and 8 rebounds.
On the losing side, after scoring 24 points in the first leg of these Play-Ins, the most for a Benfica player in a BCL game, Toney Douglas had 20 with 4/10 from three.
The hero of the Portuguese team in the Basketball Champions League Qualification Rounds, Ivan Almeida scored 11 points with 6 rebounds and 7 assists.
SL Benfica started the game hot (24-18 in the first quarter), went down by 11 points, and then recovered once again to force OT, but eventually lost.
Both teams struggled from the perimeter (Darussafaka 7/26, SL Benfica 9/34), but the home side was better in the paint with points scored there (36 vs 26) and getting rebounds (45 vs 36).
Darussafaka meets three Spanish teams in Group L of the Round of 16. The green-and-black team will face Surne Bilbao, Lenovo Tenerife, and UCAM Murcia.
PHOTO CREDIT: Basketball Champions League